UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Why Dallas is Becoming the Economic Capital of Texas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7aNcieKgc
Dallas’s Biggest Megaprojects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Dv1WwO7OQ
Why Dallas Is Growing so Fast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Qp6dUDEeU
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/n0l2b4/dallas_growth_in_20_years_20012021/
Sunday, November 16, 2025
Phoenix vs. Dallas
How Two U.S. cities will KICK OFF their rail transit revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLMtmWwAsE Dallas is part of a much larger urban area.
https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/city-size-comparison/phoenix-c3944/dallas-c3890
https://www.chase.com/personal/mortgage/cityvscity/phoenix-dallas
https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/city-size-comparison/dallas-c3890/phoenix-c3944
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Vancouver's forgotten streetcars and interurban trams
Fortunately, Toronto, NO, SF and Melbourne never got rid of all their streetcar and tram lines.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/downtown-vancouver-false-creek-streetcar-route-map
While backwards Vancouver wanted to be among the first cities to get rid of them, Vancouver will likely be one of the last cities to bring them back.
https://viewpointvancouver.ca/2021/04/06/a-bump-in-the-road-kits-points-hidden-streetcar-line/
Atlanta, SD, LA, Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle & Portland brought back some of their trollies in the form of modern LRT or tram-trains.
https://montecristomagazine.com/community/vancouvers-forgotten-streetcars
The sad irony is that Vancouver, Burnaby & NW really could have benefitted from following the Toronto, SF and Melbourne examples.
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/last-ride-oak-streetcar-vancouver-1937040
https://www.facebook.com/groups/128486813979056/posts/1968090176685368
https://maps.nicholsonroad.com/bcer/
https://humantransit.org/2010/02/vancouver-the-almost-perfect-grid.html
There used too be a streetcar route along Robson St., Denman St. & Davie St. A revived version of this could provide a nice downtown transit loop. However, that would go against the backwards mentality of Vancouver. Fortunately, the Vancouver mentality never made it to Atlanta & Dallas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Streetcar#Downtown_Loop_route_funded
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar
Unfortunatly, Vancouver & BC are all about congestive planning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2026-fifa-world-cup-vancouver-1.7559067
With less than a year to go, its impossible to revive any streetcar lines, because that can take 5-10 years. There isn't even a network of regional bus bridges. Such inept transportation planning means that busses have to squeeze onto bridges that are mostly just 2 lanes each way.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-rising-costs-fifa-2026-world-cup-1.7573669
Despite the first SkyTrain line opening in 1985, it took until 2025 to start having5 car trains. The 2nd & 3rd lines are still only running 2 car trains.
Of course the city is decades behind in keeping up with having enough hotel rooms.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-hotel-shortage-2026-world-cup-1.7117696
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Trams-Trains+and+Streetcars
Monday, July 7, 2025
Midweek showers sandwiched by sunny days in Metro Vancouver
Summer is only a 3 quick months in BC, so when crappy rainy fall like weather shows up, it shortens the number of summer days even more. At least half of the year is cold & damp in Vancouver. Yet once again, Vancouver is so far behind. There is the RESO or Underground_City in_Montreal and the Path_in Toronto. While Vancouver doesn't get as cold as Chicago during the winter, or as hot as Dallas and Houston during the summer, there still should have been a proper effort to have a key part of the downtown interconnected with tunnels. There is just something about Vancouver & BC that always opts to take a Half-A$$ED approach to things.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Dallas Cityplace Tower landlord seeks to add nearly 1,000 apartments
Monday, March 10, 2025
Calgary vs. Denver and Dallas
The scale Calgary is impressive, but Alberta just doesn't have the same imposed restrictions as backwater BC.
Denver is a big city & metropolitan area in its own right, but somehow Calgary has more 50 story office towers than Denver. Dallas has more tall buildings than Calgary and Denver, combined.
Dallas is a landlocked_city like Calgary and Denver.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Edmonton Light Rail Transit (LRT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_LRT#History Unlike what backwards Vancouver would end up doing, Edmonton understood the importance of having long underground stations, right from the start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Line#Stations If you are from Edmonton or Seattle, you will be immediately surprised as to how short & small the underground Vancouver train stations are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_station_(Edmonton) 1978
"The underground station has a 129-metre-long (423 ft) centre loading platform that can accommodate two five-car LRT trains at the same time, with one train on each side of the platform. At just under 8 m wide (26 ft), the underground platform is narrow by current Edmonton LRT design guidelines." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_station_(Edmonton)#Station_layout
Yet, this is big by narrowminded Vancouver & BC standards. Despite Vancouver having its own version of cold & crappy weather, there just isn't the same concept or desire to have a network of elevated & especially, underground corridors like what Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Dallas & Houston have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_station_(Edmonton) 1978
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay/Enterprise_Square_station 1983 Being from wattered down Vancouver, it's hard to fathom a 130m long underground station in Edmonton, but Albertal doesn't have anything like a backwards BC mentality to contend with. The first 2 SkyTrain lines were designed to only have 80m stations. The 3rd line to Richmond & YVR, was only designed to have 50m stations. While this initially might have made sense as a cost saving measure, it will cost so much more to eventually try to lengthen these short stations. Thus, all the stations should have been designed to eventually be at least 153m, or just over 500 feet.
"The station has a 130-metre-long (430 ft) centre loading platform that can accommodate two five-car LRT trains at the same time, with one train on each side of the platform." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay/Enterprise_Square_station#Station_layout
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_station_(Edmonton) 1983
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Centre_station 1989
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_station_(Edmonton) 1992 It remains to be scene if Vancouver might have a UBC station by 2032. While geology & climate can vary between cities, the laws of physics in the BC part of Canada isn't supposed to be different. Yet, it takes a long time to get things done in backwater BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Line#Stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_light_rail_systems
Monday, November 4, 2024
The Dallas Streetcar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar#Future_expansion_plans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Line_Trolley#Future
https://www.dart.org/guide/transit-and-use/dallas-streetcar
https://www.mata.org/about/learn/
https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2023/10/dallas-wakes-up-to-a-hazy-dream-of-a-streetcar-system
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=streetcars+and+trams
Monday, May 13, 2024
The Sixth Street Viaduct and the West 7th Street Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Street_Viaduct Los Angeles
https://www.lusas.com/case/bridge/west_7th_street_bridge.html Fort Worth, Texas
Of course similar bridges can be seen in various cities.
https://aecollab.com/projects/bridges/west-7th-street-bridge
https://ftwtoday.6amcity.com/66-mile-bike-trail-connects-fort-worth-dallas
https://laist.com/news/transportation/6th-street-bridge-bike-lanes-how-protective-are-they
Monday, September 18, 2023
City of Vancouver parts ways with its chief planner
Theresa O'Donnell came to Vancouver as a deputy director of planning in 2019 after 15 years working for the City of Dallas https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/city-of-vancouver-parts-ways-with-chief-planner
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/theresa-odonnell-city-of-vancouver-chief-planner-departure
Small Vancouver can fit into Dallas 8 times.
| Area | |
|---|---|
| • City | 123.63 km2 (47.73 sq mi) |
| • Land | 115.18 km2 (44.47 sq mi) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas
| Area | |
|---|---|
| • City | 385.9 sq mi (999.2 km2) |
| • Land | 339.604 sq mi (879.56 km2) |
| • Water | 43.87 sq mi (113.60 km2) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas#Geography
Vancouver was one of the first cities to remove its streetcars in the 1950s & will likely be one of the last to bring them back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Downtown_Historic_Railway#Proposed_future_service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar Of course Dallas would revive a small portion of its streetcar system long before Vancouver ever could. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar#Future_expansion_plans
https://www.mata.org/ride/route-map
Even Los_Angeles & the Brooklyn-Queens_Connector will likely be up & running sooner than Vancouver's attempted revival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_North_America#Heritage_streetcar_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_North_America#Light_rail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail_in_North_America#History_of_streetcars_and_light_rail
Monday, February 7, 2022
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Dallas Underground tunnels...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp-4gdLjd6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVe8YNbHTZs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9J91V_ETE
Due to rapid growth during the 1950s, traffic congestion became a critical issue facing Dallas. In response, city planners and the Dallas Citizens Traffic Commission worked to keep traffic moving safely and efficiently; their efforts are documented in this film. The Dallas Citizens Traffic Commission was formed in 1936 and, by the 1950s, included citizens from every Dallas civic organization. Their mission was to improve traffic safety and efficiency for Dallas citizens. Film produced by the Dallas Citizens Traffic Commission, property of the Dallas Municipal Archives." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leAKXcaLDd4 1955
